164 MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE FLORA 
They are epiphytes growing chiefly on the mangrove trees and 
bushes on the coast. The galleried tuberous stems are some- 
times as much as eighteen inches long. I have here an example 
of each genus. A new genus of Pandanacex (which Ihave named 
Sararanga sinuosa, Sararang being the native name of this tree, 
see p. 216, Pl. XI.), a tree fifty feet high, with long, narrow, 
almost unarmed leaves, and a panicled spadix of white female 
flowers, was discovered in Fauro island at elevations of 1600 to 
1900 feet, and is, indeed, the most remarkable plant of the col- 
lection. Dr. O. Beceari collected the same, or a closely allied 
species, in the island of Jobie, North-western New Guinea, and 
about twenty degrees west of Fauro. Although the material is 
incomplete I propose publishing such a description of it as I can. 
Cominsia Guppyi, Hemsl.*, is a new genus of Scitaminee, allied 
to Phrynium, and characterized by an elongated inflorescence 
with the flowers clustered in boat-shaped bracts, and opening 
one at atime. The elongated tube of the corolla, the dehiscent 
fruit, and the rugose corky seed with an empty cavity parallel 
to the curved embryo, are also characteristic. This plant was 
collected in Fauro Island by Dr. Guppy, and in San Christoval, 
in the extreme south of the group, by Mr. Comins. 
Proceeding to some of Mr. Comins’s plants, I will first direct 
attention to the Sapotaceous genus Chelonespermum, published 
last year (1892) in the‘ Annals of Botany,’ with illustrations from 
admirable drawings by Mrs. Thiselton Dyer and Miss M. Smith. 
The genus was really founded upon the seeds, which are, indeed, 
among the most curious in the vegetable kingdom. One is con- 
tained in each fruit, which is pear-shaped, and has a more or less 
fleshy pericarp, though the ovary is two-celled, with one ovule 
in each cell. The seed is a dorsi-ventral body, and I may explain 
that it is erect in the fruit with reference to these two very 
different surfaces. On the smooth surface or back, the pericarp 
is quite thin, whereas on the uneven or hilum surface it is pulpy, 
and of sufficient thickness to form a symmetrical fruit. The 
embryo fills the whole cavity of the testa, or is enveloped in a 
very thin film of endosperm, at least in the mature state. It 
has two very large, fleshy, plano-convex cotyledons applied face 
to face, and a short thick radicle, which probably emerges in 
germination through an opening in the testa, the beginning of 
* ‘Annals of Botany,’ v. p. 501, pl. 27. 
